Money for old socks: John Lewis to buy back clothes to cut waste
Summary
John Lewis is to buy back worn and unwanted clothing from its customers – including underwear and old socks – in a UK industry first that aims to reduce the 300,000 tonnes of fashion waste going into landfill each year. “We already take back used sofas, beds and large electrical items such as washing machines and either donate them to charity or reuse and recycle parts and want to offer a service for fashion products,” said Martyn White, the retailer’s sustainability manager. John Atcheson, the chief executive of Stuffstr, said: “Every item has value, even old socks, and we want to make it as simple as possible for customers to benefit from their unwanted clothes.” The pilot is the first clothing recycling scheme on the high street to use technology in a way that provides its users a financial incentive. Marks & Spencer’s “schwopping” scheme, launched in 2012, has prevented more than 7.7m items of clothing from being thrown away, while brands including H&M and Zara have stepped up in-store recycling initiatives. A report on the scale of waste generated by the fashion industry, published last November by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, put the annual cost to the UK economy of landfilling clothing and household textiles at about £82m.